Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/384

  [Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, ed. Brewer and Gairdner, passim; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. xi. 201, and authorities there cited; Hutchins's Dorset, ii. 553, iii. 676; Porter's Hist. of the Knights of Malta, 1858, ii. 285, 290, 322, 323; Taafe's Hist. of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, 1852, iii. 148, 243, 276–81, iv, App. xxx; Manning and Bray's Hist. of Surrey, i. 133; Harrison's Annals of an old Manor House, 1893, pp. 66–71.]  WESTON, WILLIAM (1550?–1615), jesuit, also known as and, born at Maidstone in 1549 or 1550, was educated at Oxford, where he is said to have been a fellow of All Souls' College. His name, however, does not occur in the college registers, and it is more probable that he was the William Weston who was admitted at Christ Church in 1564, and graduated B.A. on 17 Feb. 1568–9, though Foster conjecturally identifies this Weston with Sir William Weston (d. 1593), who became chief justice of common pleas in Ireland. There is no doubt that Weston was at Oxford, where he was a contemporary and friend of Edmund Campion [q. v.] After graduating he went to Paris to continue his studies, but in 1572 removed to the newly founded seminary at Douay, where he was enrolled among the theological students. In 1573 he was tonsured and received minor orders at Brussels. Two years later he resolved to become a jesuit; he set out on foot for Rome, and on 5 Nov. 1575 was received into the St. Andrew's novitiate on the Quirinal Hill. He left all his property to the college at Douay, and out of respect for Campion adopted the name Edmunds or Edmonds, by which he was chiefly known in England; he also passed sometimes under the name of Hunt. After some months at Rome he was sent to Montilla in Spain to complete his novitiate; thence he removed to the college at Cordova, where he remained three years. In 1579 he was ordained priest, and stationed as confessor at San Lucar and Cadiz. In 1582 he was appointed to teach Greek at the college at Seville, where he remained until in 1584 he was selected on Parsons' recommendation for the English mission. Early in July he reached Paris, where he spent some time with Parsons, and on 12 Sept. he embarked at Dieppe, landing on the coast of Norfolk, and proceeding thence to London.

Weston's appointment was as superior of the English jesuit mission in succession to Jasper Heywood [q. v.], who was in prison, but at the time of his arrival there was said to be not a jesuit at liberty in England. His first success was the conversion of Philip Howard, earl of Arundel [q. v.], but he soon acquired great fame by his reported exorcisms of devils. These miracles had already proved a potent means of converting heretics on the continent, and Weston's introduction of the method into England is said to have been marked by equal success [cf. art. ]. ‘He went from one country house to another with a number of priests … who cast out devils and performed many prodigies upon certain maidservants and others … eye-witnesses swore to the facts. They actually saw the devils gliding about in immense numbers under the skins of the possessed like fishes swimming … A number of the devils revealed their names and offices under the interrogations of Weston; and Shakespeare has perpetuated the memory of Modo, Mahu, Hobbididance, and Flibbertigibbet, foul fiends who did homage to the relics of Campion and testified to the sanctity of Weston’ (King Lear, act iii. sc. iv;, pp. 45–50, 180; , Jesuits and Seculars, pp. xliv–xlv, and ‘Devil Hunting in Elizabethan England’ in Nineteenth Century, xxxv. 397 sqq.) Weston wrote an account of these proceedings in a ‘Book of Miracles,’ but it is only known from the extracts printed in ‘A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures … practised by Edmunds alias Weston, a Iesuit,’ published by Samuel Harsnett [q. v.] in 1603. A passage in this book quoted from Weston describing how he cast out of one Mainy ‘Prince Modu’ and the representatives of the seven deadly sins, also suggested to Shakespeare some features in the feigned madness of Edgar. Weston, who was himself ‘grossly superstitious and credulous even for his time,’ probably believed sincerely in these manifestations, and there is no need to suppose that there was deliberate fraud on his part.

The excitement caused by this fanaticism and the discovery of Babington's plot probably led to Weston's arrest on 4 Aug. 1586. He was imprisoned in the Clink and examined as to his connection with Babington's conspiracy; no evidence was found against him, and he escaped his associate Ballard's fate. The Countess of Arundel is said to have visited him in disguise and to have offered to purchase his release, but Weston declined. He remained in the Clink till 1588, when the alarm of the Spanish armada suggested to the government the plan of having all imprisoned Roman catholics, laymen, secular priests, and jesuits, confined in one stronghold, to prevent their co-operating in any invasion. Wisbech Castle was selected, and Weston was transferred thither from the Clink on 7 Jan. 1587–8 (Acts Privy Council, 1587–8, p. 332). For six years he endured